Actors Who Dared to Play a Slave

As the object of Django's determined rescue mission, Washington's role was criticized by feminists as passive. But the actress sees her character Broomhilda, a slave waiting to be rescued by her man, differently. "I really saw the value of having a story that empowers the African American man to do something chivalrous for the African American woman," she explained. "It's something we've never been allowed to dream about."